• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.195-224
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• 2023

This paper proposes a method for the acoustic imaging wherein the traditional requirement of the relative movement between the transmitter and target is overcome. This is facilitated through the beamforming acoustic array in the transmitter, in which the target is illuminated by the array at various azimuth and elevation angles without the physical movement of the acoustic array. The concept of beam steering of the acoustic array facilitates the formation of the beam at desired angular positions of azimuth and elevation angles. This paper substantiates that the combination of illumination of the target from different azimuth and elevation angles with respect to the transmitter (through the beam steering of beam forming acoustic array) and the beam steering at multiple frequencies (through SF) results in enhanced reconstruction of images of the target in the underwater scenario. This paper also demonstrates the possibility of reconstruction of the image of a target in underwater without invoking the traditional algorithms of Digital Image Processing (DIP). This paper comprehensively and succinctly presents all the empirical formulae required for modelling the acoustic medium and the target to facilitate the reader with a comprehensive summary document incorporating the various parameters of multi-disciplinary nature.

• 한국소음진동공학회논문집
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• 제26권6_spc호
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• pp.687-696
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• 2016

A series of process to design an acoustic lens for underwater imaging is reviewed and the method to evaluate characteristics of the lens is investigated. If the target specification of lens is given, the design process consists of the material selection, evaluation of its properties, lens geometry design, prediction of lens characteristics, manufacturing, and evaluation by measurement. In this study, an actual acoustical lens is made by cutting polymethylpentene block. The characteristics of lens are predicted by the hybrid method, combination of ray tracing and Rayleigh integral. For the direct comparison between the prediction and measurement results, a simulation method based on the equivalent source method is suggested to reflect the actual radiation pattern of transducer used for measurements. Finally, the measurement is conducted in a small water tank to observe the actual characteristics of the manufactured lens.

• 로봇학회논문지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.79-85
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• 2018

This study focuses on autonomous exploration based on map expansion for an underwater robot equipped with acoustic sonars. Map expansion is applicable to large-area mapping, but it may affect localization accuracy. Thus, as the key contribution of this paper, we propose a method for underwater autonomous exploration wherein the robot determines the trade-off between map expansion ratio and position accuracy, selects which of the two has higher priority, and then moves to a mission step. An occupancy grid map is synthesized by utilizing the measurements of an acoustic range sonar that determines the probability of occupancy. This information is then used to determine a path to the frontier, which becomes the new search point. During area searching and map building, the robot revisits artificial landmarks to improve its position accuracy as based on imaging sonar-based recognition and EKF-SLAM if the position accuracy is above the predetermined threshold. Additionally, real-time experiments were conducted by using an underwater robot, yShark, to validate the proposed method, and the analysis of the results is discussed herein.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.435-449
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• 2020

This paper proposes a method to estimate the underwater target object's yaw angle using a sonar image. A simulator modeling imaging mechanism of a sonar sensor and a generative adversarial network for style transfer generates realistic template images of the target object by predicting shapes according to the viewing angles. Then, the target object's yaw angle can be estimated by comparing the template images and a shape taken in real sonar images. We verified the proposed method by conducting water tank experiments. The proposed method was also applied to AUV in field experiments. The proposed method, which provides bearing information between underwater objects and the sonar sensor, can be applied to algorithms such as underwater localization or multi-view-based underwater object recognition.

• 한국음향학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국음향학회 1984년도 추계학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.96-99
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• 1984

In this study, the underwater acoustic images were obtained by ultrasonicwave. The experiment was performed in the anechoic watertank, using a passive sonar array for one and two sound source respectively by X-Y scanning technique. The receiving array was consist of 8 disc type transducers with 1.5cm diameter at 25KHz resonance frequency. The scanned data were processed by the FORTRAN IV algorithm for the reconstruction of image, and the image had some noise due to the surface reflected waves. As the result, it was found that the acoustic imaging by electrical deflection and dynamic focusing technique is applicable to SONAR with the suppression of surface reflected wave.

• 전자공학회논문지
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• 제53권10호
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• pp.116-122
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• 2016

본 논문은 수중에서 사용되는 영상 소나를 이용하여 수중 물체의 외형 복원을 수행하여 보고 그 결과를 분석한다. 일반적으로 해양 측량에 많이 사용되는 다중빔 해양 측심기(Multi-beam echo sounder, MES)보다 더 자세한 수중 환경 관찰이 가능한 영상 소나는 상하 방사영역 정보의 불확실성으로 인해 3차원 복원 연구로 활용되기에 어려움이 있다. 이에 본 논문에서는 소나 영상에서 얻는 물체에 대한 3차원 높이 정보의 불확실성을 줄이기 위해 영상 소나의 상하 방사영역을 좁게 조정하여 영상 소나의 3차원 물체 외형 복원의 어려움을 극복하고자 한다. 또한, 음향 채널별 잡음 제거 필터를 적용하고, 음향 채널별 상호보완 거리값 검출 방법의 적용을 통해 3차원 위치 정보의 정확도를 높이고자 한다. 제안한 수중 물체 외형 복원 방법은 3가지 물체(원뿔, 구, 기둥)에 대해 3차원 복원 실험을 수행하여 보고 그 결과를 분석하였다.

• 지구물리와물리탐사
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.8-17
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• 2023

해양 환경에서의 기포는 바람, 파도, 선박 및 해저 가스 누출을 포함한 여러 요인에 의해 생성된다. 수중에서의 기포는 강력한 산란 신호를 생성하여 음향 신호를 측정하는데 영향을 미친다. 이러한 기포의 특성은 음파 신호의 세기를 감쇠시켜 소음 차단 목적으로 주로 이용되고 있으며, 최근에는 해저에서 대규모로 누출되는 메탄가스 탐지를 위한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 이러한 가스 누출은 기포플룸의 형태를 취하며, 기포의 물리적 특성과 분포 구조를 이해하는 것은 누출된 가스를 기후 변화와 연관성을 파악하는데 중요한 요소 중 하나이다. 본 연구에서는 탄성파 영상화 기법을 이용하여 기포플룸의 분포를 추정하고자 수조환경에서 실험을 수행하였으며, 별도로 제작된 인공기포 발생기, 자료 취득 시스템을 이용하여 기포에 의한 음향 신호를 취득하였다. 기포플룸을 영상화하기 위해 지진파 영상기법 중 역시간 구조보정을 이용하였으며, 획득한 음향 신호의 포락선 신호를 이용하여 기포 분포 패턴을 효과적으로 추정하였다. 영상화 결과의 검증을 위해 추정된 기포플룸의 분포와 광학카메라 영상을 비교하였다. 실험결과 탄성파 영상화 기법 통해 인공 기포플룸의 산란신호를 이용한 영상화가 가능함을 확인하였다.

• 센서학회지
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• 제32권2호
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• pp.110-117
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• 2023

Reconstructing underwater geometry in real time with forward-looking sonar is critical for applications such as localization, mapping, and path planning. Geometrical data must be repeatedly calculated and overwritten in real time because the reliability of the acoustic data is affected by various factors. Moreover, scattering of signal data during the coordinate conversion process may lead to geometrical errors, which lowers the accuracy of the information obtained by the sensor system. In this study, we propose a three-step data processing method with low computational cost for real-time operation. First, the number of data points to be interpolated is determined with respect to the distance between each point and the size of the data grid in a Cartesian coordinate system. Then, the data are processed with a nonlinear interpolation so that they exhibit linear properties in the coordinate system. Finally, the data are transformed based on variations in the position and orientation of the sonar over time. The results of an evaluation of our proposed approach in a simulation show that the nonlinear interpolation operation constructed a continuous underwater geometry dataset with low geometrical error.